Judith Myers
Judith Margaret Myers (November 10, 1947 - October 31, 1963) is a character who first appears in the original Halloween, where she is portrayed by Sandy Johnson. She is most famous for being the very first human victim of the Butcherer of Haddonfield, her little brother Michael Myers. Biography Judith Margaret Myers was born to Donald Myers and Edith Myers on November 10, 1947 in Russellville, Illinois. Her brother Michael was born in 1957, and her sister Cynthia was born in 1961. The family lived in a white, two-story house at 45 Lampkin Lane, in the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Around 1961, Judith noted that Michael was very rude towards her as he would often barge into her room and also take her diary and draw horrible faces on most of the pages. She also noted that whenever Michael would end up hurting himself, she would get blamed for it. However, the main thing that troubled her about her younger brother were the times when she would catch him staring at her. She did get along with her baby sister and often held her. In 1963, Judith was dating a boy named Daniel Hodges. In May of that year, Judith and Danny took a trip to nearby Russellville, but Judith's parents insisted that she should take young Michael along with them. Judith ditched Michael to go have sex in the grass with Danny, leaving Michael to his own devices. Michael disrupted his sister's lovemaking when he appeared before her covered in blood and holding a dead rabbit in his hands. Judith was deeply disturbed by this, but knew better than to tell her parents, or else she would have to explain why she had failed to keep an eye on her brother while this occurred. Halloween: The First Death of Laurie Strode #2 On the night of October 31, 1963, Judith's parents went out, leaving Michael in his sister's care, although she had planned to entertain her boyfriend. She let Michael go trick or treating as she prepared herself for Danny. As she was getting ready for her night, the doorbell rang and it was eight trick-or-treaters. Judith teased them and asked them what would they do if she gave them no treats, which puzzled the young children. The only one who spoke was a young boy in a clown costume, who told Judith that they would kill her. Judith knew who the clown was as she had helped finish her younger brother's costume. She told him that she was going to tell their parents what he said but Michael simply replied "I'm not Michael Myers, I'm a clown." At that moment, Danny drove up and Judith gave the children the candy and let her boyfriend in. Halloween (novel) At a few minutes to 10:00 PM, Michael, still dressed as a clown, walked around his house, and silently watched through the windows of his house as Judith and her boyfriend kissed, and soon thereafter went upstairs to have sex. Michael, seeing the light in Judith's room go out, sneaked in through the back door, got a large butcher knife from a drawer, and began creeping towards the stairs. Having finished their illicit activities, Judith and Danny parted, Danny promising to call her the next day. Upon his departure, Michael walked up the stairs, donning a dropped clown mask before following a trail of dropped clothing towards his sister's bedroom. He found her combing her hair in front of her vanity, singing to herself, nude save for her panties. Judith noticed her brother as he crept up behind her and spun around, calling his name in surprise. Michael then proceeded to stab her multiple times in the chest, torso, and abdomen. In pain, Judith screamed out loudly and fell to the floor mortally wounded. As Judith lay on her bedroom floor, Michael walked out of her bedroom and down the stairs exiting the house and stood on the front lawn as his parents parked the car. His father, Don Myers, pulled off the clown mask and said "Michael?!" His mother, Edith Myers, looked on in shock for a brief moment. Don wasted no time in racing into the house and running upstairs to check on Judith while Edith managed to get the knife away from Michael and escort him into the house with her young daughter, Cynthia, following them. Upon seeing Judith, Don screamed to Edith "Call an operator and get the police and a medic!" A hysterical Edith immediately called an operator who connected her to the Haddonfield Police Station. She spoke with Sheriff Ron Barstow, who told her that he would dispatch some officers who would be there as quickly as possible. After she hung up with the sheriff, she called an operator again who connected her with a receptionist at the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, who then dispatched some paramedics to the Myers residence. Sheriff Barstow, the police officers and the paramedics arrived almost immediately. When the paramedics entered Judith's bedroom they got to work immediately. It was evident that Judith had gone into shock. The police had to physically remove Don from his daughter's bedroom and prevent Edith from trying to enter Judith's bedroom. Edith desperately wanted to be by her daughter's side. The police did their best in persuading Edith that it would be in her best interest not to enter her daughter's bedroom. The paramedics placed Judith on a gurney and exited the house where they then placed her in the ambulance. They left in a hurry and whisked Judith to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. After Judith's removal, some of the police quickly took pictures of the crime scene. Sheriff Ron Barstow escorted Edith, Don, Michael and Cynthia into the kitchen. After the police finished taking the crime scene pictures they left with Don, Edith and Michael who were driven to the Haddonfield Police Station where the interrogation of the Myers family began. Their young daughter, Cynthia, was driven to her grandmother's house where she would stay until the interrogation was over. Meanwhile a police officer was dispatched to Judith's boyfriend's house so that he could also be brought down to the police station for questioning. The interrogation of Michael went nowhere. Michael did not speak, so it was believed that he was in a state of fear and shock. Shortly after 1:00 A.M., Don and Edith were informed that Judith had been pronounced dead upon her arrival at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. Judith's corpse was looked over by the medical examiner Barry Hersal in the hospital's morgue. The police allowed Edith and Don to return home with Michael after the questioning. Instead of going home to 45 Lampkin Lane, they spent the night and several others at Edith's mother's house. They couldn't bear the thought of going home. It was too soon. However, the police were rough on Judith's boyfriend who denied any involvement as well as any knowledge as to who had murdered her. The police did not have any evidence against Judith's boyfriend at that time and so they had to let him go. Eventually, when the crime scene photos were developed, it was evident to the investigators that Judith did not put up much of a fight. Her jewelry box and lamp had been pushed aside on her vanity and her hairbrush had fallen onto the floor. The stool that she had sat on was covered with blood splatter as was her vanity mirror. A large pool of blood was on the floor where Judith had lain as she slowly lost consciousness. They were able to determine that she was caught off guard and most likely knew her murderer and must have been in such a state of shock by seeing who the perpetrator was. That would explain why she did not put up much of a fight. Also, the amount of pain that she had endured during the attack could have overwhelmed her. After they studied the fingerprints, they noticed that they were too small to be an adult's. That was when Michael became a prime suspect. The police did some digging around and spoke to some people who knew the Myers family and learned that Michael had significant psychological problems. At some point they were able to get the results of Michael's fingerprints, Dan's fingerprints and Edith's fingerprints. Dan's fingerprints were not found on the knife and he was ruled out. However, both Michael's and Edith's fingerprints were found on the knife. Edith's fingerprints were excluded because she had admitted to the police that she removed the knife from Michael shortly after Judith's murderous attack. Don also backed up his wife saying that he witnessed Michael holding the knife when they got home and that he also witnessed Edith remove the knife from him. That left only one person who could have committed the heinous act and that was Michael Audrey Myers. A few days later, the coroner's report on Judith Myers was released to the police. It stated that semen was discovered on Judith which was an indication that she had spent the evening with her boyfriend but that her wounds had been inflicted by a sharp object such as a knife. It also stated that the wounds were not deep enough to be inflicted by the strength required of an adult and that they were primarily centered around Judith's abdomen and torso with a few chest wounds which suggested that the perpetrator was not as tall as the average adult. That further proved that Judith was sitting down in front of her vanity at the time of the attack. Had Judith been standing, Michael would have had difficulty reaching her chest and upper torso region. The coroner's report concluded that Judith died as a result of massive blood loss. The police then had enough evidence to arrest Michael. Several police officers were dispatched to Edith's childhood home where Michael was currently residing and arrested him, much to his parents' despair. He was taken to Smith's Grove Sanitarium until he appeared in court where the judge ruled that Michael would remain at the sanitarium until the age of twenty one when he would be tried as an adult in the murder of Judith. Edith and Don Myers cried when Michael was escorted out of the courtroom. Judith's boyfriend, peers and former high school staff paid their respects by attending her wake on November 2, 1963. Judith was in a closed casket. Everyone shared stories about all of the good times that they had with Judith. On November 3, 1963, she was buried at the Mt. Sinclair Cemetery. Her parents, grandmother and other relatives were in attendance. Her former boyfriend, Dan, was also in attendance. Michael, of course, was prohibited from attending http://www.halloweencomics.com/morguereports.php. After Judith's death and Michael's institutionalization, Edith suffered from major depression and Don began drinking excessively. They eventually returned to their house and had to deal with the horrible task of cleaning up the mess in Judith's bedroom. They also sorted through Judith's personal belongings. All of her clothes were donated to the goodwill as well as her bedroom furniture. Only a few very sentimental items were kept. Some of which were a few diaries that her parents stumbled upon. In time, they began to read her diaries and learned that she began keeping a diary when Michael's psychological problems were becoming apparent. In them she detailed Michael's strange behavior towards her and her disappointment of not having a healthy sibling relationship with her brother. She wrote about her frustrations and concerns for herself and for that of her family. She also stressed that she thought that her parents were not taking her concerns seriously. Her parents also noticed the pictures of horrible faces that were drawn in her diaries as well as some pages that were missing. They could tell that the pictures were drawn by Michael. Her last diary entry was dated October 31, 1963 which was not complete as Judith had written "I'll continue later tonight after Dan has left." The information contained within Judith's diaries further added to the grief of Mr. and Mrs. Myers. Sometime in 1964, Dr. Samuel Loomis obtained Judith's diaries when her parents handed them over to him in the hopes that it might aid in Michael's psychological treatment and offer more insight into his background. Loomis agreed to hold onto Judith's diaries. On November 10th and October 31st during the years 1964 and 1965, Don and Edith placed flowers and a cross on Judith's grave to mark the anniversary of her birthday and the day that they lost her. Judith's grandmother would also be in attendance and her three relatives would say prayers and remind each other of how much they loved her. Despite what Michael had done, his parents would visit him faithfully at Smith's Grove Sanitarium. They still loved him and were desperate for a cure. They would not accept the fact that Michael was suffering from mental illness and remained in a state of deep denial. One day, on the way to Smith's Grove Sanitarium, Don lost control of the car. He and Edith both died in the fatal car accident. The autopsy revealed that Don had been driving under the influence of alcohol. However, their young daughter, Cynthia managed to survive the car accident, which was thought to be a miracle. The young child was placed up for adoption and later adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Strode, who changed her name to Laurie Strode so she would not have to bear the Myers stigma. Between the years 1965 and 1969, Judith's grave site was only visited by her grandmother. Judith's parents who loved her, had passed away and her grandmother eventually passed away from old age. Other relatives were scattered throughout the United States and were busy with their own lives. When her grandmother passed away in 1969, the only people who would visit Judith's grave site would be a few teenagers who would sneak into the cemetery for a good scare or show off their bravery. But all of that would eventually change and come to an abrupt end in 1978. Judith's shocking murder would become something of a legend to the citizens of Haddonfield. In 1978, Angus Taylor, the graveyard keeper continued to express surprise that such a young boy as Michael could commit such a horrible act of violence. Eventually the Myers house was abandoned and the place would remain unoccupied for quite some time. The look of the deserted house, coupled with the story of Judith's murder, was not a good selling point for Strode Realty and it caused the children of the town to deem it a "haunted house". Judith and her murder played a significant role in Michael's future murder sprees. When Michael returned to Haddonfield in 1978, fifteen years after murdering his sister, he took up residence in his vacant childhood home and would walk into Judith's bedroom to reminisce about her murder. He also stole her gravestone from Mt. Sinclair Cemetery, confirming his psychiatrist's fears that Michael had, indeed, come home. However, later on Halloween night 1978, Michael displayed Annie Brackett's body under said headstone after murdering her. The same night, Michael stabbed a knife through a crayon drawing of a family, although this could have been either in reference to Judith's death, or his wish to kill his other sister, Laurie Strode. ''Halloween (1978)'' Her headstone was then returned to her grave. Sometime in late 1978, after Halloween, Laurie Strode learned that she was the younger sister of Judith from Dr. Samuel Loomis. Laurie was afraid to learn more about her biological family and yet she wanted answers. Dr. Samuel Loomis then informed Laurie that he had Judith's diaries and said that she should have them. She deserved the right to get to know who her sister was and learn what her sister observed of Michael. Laurie took the diaries and eventually started reading them. In 1979, after Laurie had time to think about her family ties with the Myers family, she had the courage to visit Judith's grave site and lay flowers on her grave. She wanted to acknowledge the sister she would never really get to know. On Halloween 1989, in the now-derelict Myers house, Jamie Lloyd sat in front of a vanity mirror as she brushed her hair in Judith's bedroom. She performed an eerie recreation of her aunt Judith's final moments which was done according to the direction of Dr. Loomis in an attempt to lure her uncle, Michael, so that he could be captured. In 2000, Michael set his sights on Lisa Thomas, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Judith. He murdered anyone who was connected to Lisa and those who posed a problem to him. Once he got her, he buried her alive in a grave underneath a wooden cross shape which was marked with the name "Judith Myers". Trivia * 9-1-1 was not established as a nationwide emergency telephone number in the United States until the year 1968. Prior to that year if there was an emergency, a person would have to get in touch with a telephone operator who would then connect you with the police, etc. This would have been the case in the year 1963. * Judith and Co-writer Debra Hill were both born on November 10th. * Judith's social security number was 349-76-8836.Halloweencomics.com * Judith's corpse was attended by Barry Hersal from 11:30 PM on October 31, 1963 to 1:00 AM on November 1, 1963.Halloweencomics.com * Judith was the first on-screen murder of the Halloween series. She is also the first human victim of Michael Myers in most timelines, with the exception of the remake timeline. * In Halloween II (1981 film), when Dr. Loomis discovers Michael's drawing of his family with a knife protruding from it, he tells the police officers that the family member that Michael stabbed was his sister. This occurred before Nurse Marion Chambers informed him of Laurie Strode's relation to Michael Myers and Judith Myers. * In Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, Laurie tells Will Brennan that Judith was 17 when she was murdered by their brother Michael, but she was actually 15. It is likely it was written as 17 so it would tie into Laurie and John having both been attacked when they were 17. * In the Chaos Comics Halloween Series it was mentioned by Leigh Brackett, who had dated Judith briefly, that she was a nympho as well as physically and possibly sexually abused. * In the 1979 novelization based on the original Halloween film, Judith was described as having blonde hair and that when she died in 1963 the sheriff of Haddonfield was Sheriff Ron Barstow. It is also stated that when Dr. Samuel Loomis arrived at the cemetery looking for evidence that Michael had been at Judith's grave site that he is in Haddonfield Cemetery. According to Judith's tombstone her middle name was "Margaret". * A fan made film titled Judith: The Night She Stayed Home was produced. Sarah Stephenson portrayed Judith Myers. It is presented as a prequel (though not entirely consistent with the original Halloween film) and offers insight into who Judith was and why she stayed home on Halloween night. It was filmed in a house in North Carolina that is an exact replica of the Myers house. * A fan made film titled Michael Myers: Rise of the Boogeyman features Judith Myers taking Michael Myers Trick or Treating on Halloween 1963. * In the remake, Halloween by Rob Zombie, Judith is not Michael's first murder victim. However, her death is more brutal and includes a brief chase scene. Appearances * Halloween (1978) * Halloween (novelization) * Halloween II (1981) (mentioned) * Halloween II (novelization) (mentioned) * Masks and Grotesque Figures (flashback) * Demons Tormenting Me (flashback) * Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (mentioned) * Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (mentioned) * Halloween: Resurrection (mentioned) * Halloween: Autopsis (Cameo) * The Silent Clown (Cameo & Flashback) * A Rainbow In One Color (Flashback) * When The Stars Came Crashing Down (mentioned) * Halloween: One Good Scare (Flashback) * Halloween: Charlie (visons only) * Halloween (2018) (flashback) References Haddonfield Memorial Hospital Category:Female characters Category:Halloween (1978) characters Category:Victims of Michael Myers Category:Myers Family Category:1940's births Category:1960's deaths Category:First Death of Laurie Strode characters Category:Chaos Comics Halloween characters Category:Nightdance characters Category:Deceased Category:Mentioned characters